Chapter 13, Verse 21
कार्यकारणकर्तृत्वे हेतुः प्रकृतिरुच्यते | पुरुषः सुखदुःखानां भोक्तृत्वे हेतुरुच्यते ||१३-२१||
kāryakāraṇakartṛtve hetuḥ prakṛtirucyate . puruṣaḥ sukhaduḥkhānāṃ bhoktṛtve heturucyate ||13-21||
Meaning
13.21 In the production of the effect and the cause, Nature (matter) is said to be the cause; in the experience of pleasure and pain, the soul is said to be the cause.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Krishna now assigns roles with great precision. Nature (prakriti) is the cause of all doing — the production of the body and its instruments, and the whole machinery of action. The hands act, the mind plans, the senses operate, all powered by nature's energies. The purusha, the spirit, is not the doer at all.
Yet the spirit is the cause in the experiencing of pleasure and pain. Here is the subtle knot of bondage: consciousness, by identifying with nature's processes, takes on the experience of joy and sorrow that rightly belong to the field. The witness, forgetting itself, feels itself to be the sufferer and enjoyer. This diagnosis is profoundly practical. Suffering arises not from events themselves but from the self's entanglement with the field. The way out is to remember our true nature as the unattached witness — present to all experience, but no longer claiming it as our personal burden.
💡 Key Takeaway
Nature does all the doing; suffering arises only when the witnessing self forgets itself and claims the experience as its own.
Related Verses
अर्जुन उवाच | प्रकृतिं पुरुषं चैव क्षेत्रं क्षेत्रज्ञमेव च | एतद्वेदितुमिच्छामि ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं च केशव ||१३-१||
arjuna uvāca . prakṛtiṃ puruṣaṃ caiva kṣetraṃ kṣetrajñameva ca . etadveditumicchāmi jñānaṃ jñeyaṃ ca keśava ||13-1||
13.1 Arjuna said I wish to learn about Nature (matter) and the Spirit (soul), the field and the knower of the field, knowledge and that which ought to be known, O Kesava.
श्रीभगवानुवाच | इदं शरीरं कौन्तेय क्षेत्रमित्यभिधीयते | एतद्यो वेत्ति तं प्राहुः क्षेत्रज्ञ इति तद्विदः ||१३-२||
śrībhagavānuvāca . idaṃ śarīraṃ kaunteya kṣetramityabhidhīyate . etadyo vetti taṃ prāhuḥ kṣetrajña iti tadvidaḥ ||13-2||
13.2 The Blessed Lord said This body, O Arjuna, is called the field; he who knows it is called the knower of the field, by those who know of them.
इच्छा द्वेषः सुखं दुःखं संघातश्चेतना धृतिः | एतत्क्षेत्रं समासेन सविकारमुदाहृतम् ||१३-७||
icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṃ duḥkhaṃ saṃghātaścetanā dhṛtiḥ . etatkṣetraṃ samāsena savikāramudāhṛtam ||13-7||
13.7 Desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, the aggregate (the body), intelligence, fortitude the field has thus been briefly described with its modifications.